‘The Hunger Games’ is #1 for the fourth straight week!

‘The Hunger Games’ continues owning the box office; no one can take its place. It added an extra $21.5 million dollars to the jackpot it has already collected. Perhaps the only movie that will be able to take its’ spot will be ‘The Avengers’, which premieres in a couple of weeks.

‘The Three Stooges’ took ‘American Reunion’’s spot, which fell to fourth place, with $17.1 million dollars. Critics have said that the remake of the stooges is worth seeing and the box office clearly shows it.

‘The Cabin in the Woods’ a perfect film for Friday the 13th, came in third place with $14.9 million dollars. This comic-horror movie is a breath of fresh air for a genre that seems to be falling flat more than not.

The Top 10 movies at the box office are:

1. The Hunger Games – $21.5 mil

2. The Three Stooges – $17.1 mil

3. The Cabin in the Woods – $14.9 mil

4. Titanic 3D – $11.6 mil

5. American Reunion –  $10.7 mil

6. Mirror, Mirror – $7 mil

7. Wrath of the Titans – $6.9 mil

8. 21 Jump Street – $6.8 mil

9. Lockout – $6.3 mil

10. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax – $3 mil

Lockout (Movie Review)

‘Lockout’ is a fun action film despite its predictability. The concept of it is interesting and although you may know how it will end, it is all about the ride. Although I enjoyed the action my favorite part of the film was Guy Pearce, his character is just a smart mouth agent who’s looking out mainly just for himself; his sarcastic humorous comments make most scenes entertaining. This isn’t the best action film out there, but if you want to have fun at the movies and have a couple of laughs, this is definitely a good choice, despite of its’ flaws.

Agent Snow (Guy Pearce) is convicted of a crime against the U.S. government, that he denies having committed. Despite that he is offered to take on a mission upon MS One, an experimental prison in space where the 500 most dangerous criminals on planet Earth are kept in artificial sleep. He must rescue Emilie (Maggie Grace), the president’s daughter who has gone out to the station in a humanitarian mission and has fallen hostage to inmates who’ve broken free.   

Directors James Mather and Stephen St. Leger are two Irish boys from Dublin who sought out to make a futuristic action thriller that was entertaining. They reached their goal, however with a little more effort it could have been an even more entertaining film. They inserted a bit of themselves, which we perhaps can see in many of the inmates. Snow, Pearce’s smart mouth character is charming in his own jerk-like way although at points he does get dangerously close to being too macho therefore a bit irritating; but obviously he’s the one that carries the film on his shoulders. Honestly, I mainly hated Grace’s character, she was such a helpless girl throughout most of the movie that she was just annoying to watch, although she does redeem herself at the end.

My biggest problem with the movie is that the storyline didn’t convince me, starting by the fact that I could figure out the outcome since the beginning and there are some holes and various weak points. At times the storyline tries to get complicated and layered which takes away from the simplicity that would have enhanced it. The special effects are not that great, one scene in particular is just a videogame shot shaming the movie.

This is just a good time at the movies; it takes you on a wacky futuristic story in outer space, where a man and a woman alone face the world’s worst criminals. The arena they are in is unusual, defying authority is their motto and getting out alive is their goal. So if you can put the technicalities aside, get ready to go on a crazy journey with an insane guide that somehow has a good head on his shoulders and enjoy the video game like scenario where the bad guys outnumber the good ones. 

Detention (Movie Review)

The best word to describe ‘Detention’ is- WEIRD! This movie is so wacky in every sense: the storyline, the characters, even the images. This is a mash-up of various genres: horror, comedy, teen-movies, and romance. It is hard enough for just one movie to accomplish something good in just one genre, therefore one that tries to encompass various is bound for disaster. The movie does make you laugh more than once, mainly because of the witty dialogue, but also because of the ridiculousness of it. This might only be worth a watch if it’s on TV on a day where you have nothing else to do and there’s absolutely nothing to else to watch.

The movie explores high school life for seniors in Grizzly Lake. There are the popular kids among them Clapton Davis (Josh Hutcherson) and Ione (Spencer Locke) and the outcasts like Riley Jones (Shanley Caswell) and Sander Sanderson (Aaron David Johnson). Not only are they all trying to survive high school, but they are also trying to survive a killer named Cinderhella who’s slashing one student at a time.

The movie tries to be fun and cool and it accomplishes it at some points, by having the characters talk to the audience, making small movie montages about each character’s life and even taking us through a journey in music and fashion. The movie is like ‘Mean Girls’, ‘The Breakfast Club’, and ‘Scream’ all in one. But the storyline goes on a tangent and as it develops it becomes less and less interesting, because it gets more ridiculous by the minute.

The movie might ride off on Hutcherson’s success in ‘The Hunger Games’ and that’s a smart move on their part, but he should also be happy that this film didn’t do wide-release a year ago when it began to be promoted. Movies are expensive to make so it is hard to understand why a studio or director would decide to spend money on such a fruitless project, especially because it is said that director Joseph Kahn used his savings to make it. All in all there are better movies coming out this weekend than wasting your money on this one.   

‘The Hunger Games’ reaches $302 million at the box office!

‘The Hunger Games’ not only continues to hold the number one spot in the box office with $33.5 million dollars, but it has reached the outstanding amount of $302 million total (in the U.S., it is almost at $460 mil world-wide) in just three weeks. Despite of the tough contenders it had, it keeps holding on strongly.

The fourth installment of the American Pie franchise ‘American Reunion,’ took the second spot in the box office with $21.5 million dollars. It seems like many of its’ loyal followers decided to check out what this last slice of pie had to offer.

Another blast from the past ‘Titanic 3D’ shows up in third place with $17.4 million dollars. James Cameron continues to show that his work is hard to top; he was capable of re-making a film from 1997 flawlessly into 3D and it almost already made up for the $18 million dollars it took to convert it.

The Top 10 in the Box Office are:

1.The Hunger Games – $33.5 mil

2. American Reunion – $21.5 mil

3. Titanic 3D – $17.4 mil

4. Wrath of the Titans – $15 mil

5. Mirror, Mirror – $11 mil

6. Jump Street – $10.2 mil

7. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax – $5 mil

8. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – $ 975 Thousand

9. John Carter – $ 820 Thousand

10. Safe House – $581 Thousand

‘The Hunger Games’ Keeps Being #1

‘The Hunger Games’ continues to hold on to the number one spot in the box office, it seems like it will be very hard for someone to take its’ place. This was one of the most anticipated movies of the year and it begins the month of April holding on to its’ place with $61.1 million dollars.

A sequel follows it, ‘Wrath of the Titans’ which has received compliments because it is better than its’ predecessor. This movie of action and mythology took second place with $34.2 million dollars.

The children’s movie ‘Mirror, Mirror’ starring Julia Roberts shyly took third place with $19 million dollars. It could be because according to critics this new version doesn’t enhance the story of Snow White.

The Top 10 Movies in the Box Office are:

1. The Hunger Games – $61.1 mil

2. Wrath of the Titans – $34.2 mil

3. Mirror, Mirror – $19 mil

4. 21 Jump Street – $15 mil

5. Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Lorax’ – $8 mil

6. John Carter – $2 mil

7. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – $1.3 mil

8. Act of Valor – $1 mil

9. A Thousand Words – $0.915 thousand

10. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island – $0.825 thousand

‘The Hunger Games’ breaks records with $155M!

‘The Hunger Games’ is the third movie in history to make so much money in its debut, after ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’ and ‘The Dark Night. Also it is the first non-sequel in history to collect such a huge amount, at the same time is the movie that has earned the most for Lionsgate studio, with the outstanding sum of $155 million dollars. There is a number of infinite reasons for its success, the fact that it’s based on a successful trilogy by Suzanne Collins or the controversial theme of its story or that the advertising campaign gave its all world-wide. Whatever it is, the formula they used worked.

The comedy ’21 Jump Street’ which was number one last week follows it, adding $21.3 million dollars to their profits. It was very hard for this comedy, which many critics say it’s the best one of the year so far, to fight against the enormous debut of the one that took first place.

‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ fell to third place, although it has done very well this month after its’ premiere. The $13.1 million dollars from this weekend add up to the $177 million dollars total it has earned, almost the amount that the number one this week achieved in only its’ premiere.

The Top 10 Movies in the Box Office are:

1. The Hunger Games – $155 mil

2. 21 Jump Street – $21.3 mil

3. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax – $13.1 mil

4. John Carter – $5 mil

5. Act of Valor – $2.1 mil

6. Project X – $1.9 mil

7. A Thousand Words – $1.9 mil

8. October Baby – $1.7 mil

9. Safe House – $1.4 mil

10. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island – $1.4 mil

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

 

‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is a movie anticipated by many: the book fans, the Swedish version of the film fans and everyone else that has gotten curious by the buzz around the book trilogy that hooked millions. This thriller will not disappoint any of the aforementioned, many might think there was no need to make an American version of the film, but the truth is that it combined all the good elements of the original one along with the book as a guide of course to make a great remake. This version makes the book and original more eye opening by bringing the action scenes to a higher standard.

 

The film is based on a book by the Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, it was published back in 2005 and was quickly made into a Swedish movie in 2009. It develops the story of a financial journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who has legal troubles and is in the verge of loosing his entire career and taking the magazine he works for Millennium down with him. A rich millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), the kind of person he usually does his research about, decides to hire him for an unusual chore: to investigate the disappearance of his niece Harriet and odd 40 years ago. The story that develops at the same time on the screen is that of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara); a social outcast that spends her time being the best investigator at a security firm, who uses any method she can to complete the tasks assigned to her. These two unite to make an unbeatable team that will try to solve a crime no one expects them to. This game of “Clue†gets more interesting as the film progresses.

 

Mara is fantastic as Lisbeth, her make up, her attitude; her whole persona is played out perfectly. Seeing Mr. Bond aka Craig in this role is quite interesting, he still is a ladies man but is way more human than Bond; it’s almost tough seeing him be so weak at times but he’s also fantastic. The images in Stockholm and the imaginary town of Hedestad are very similar to those of the original film; (despite of the fact that the filmmakers say they didn’t use the original to do this remake) although somehow they are more captivating. The film runs for 2hrs and 30mins, which gives justice to the lengthy book, but towards the end it gets so fast paced that it might be hard to follow for those not familiar with it. The sequence of the book is mainly followed except for some minor changes to the script, which are easy to adapt to. There are several scenes that are very hard to watch, so be prepared. Try to make it to see the beginning of the film; the title sequence is a treat in itself.

 

The Swedish film is the most watched Swedish film ever! That might not be the case in America but it will surely have high-ticket sales for a while after it comes out. If you’ve been waiting for this film since you heard they were doing an American remake of it you will surely be rewarded for the wait. Director David Fincher cooked up the perfect movie to honor the book and the writer’s memory and to keep us waiting patiently for the other 2 to follow.

 

And to read an interview with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig , click here, plus follow Karen Posada via Twitter to @karenlpo